A Case Study of Improving a Reading Class via Peer Observation

The significance of peer observations has been emphasized in English language teaching as a powerful tool to support understanding and development of one’s teaching beliefs and actual practice.This thesis first presents the position and necessity of employing peer observation in teacher’s professional development with reference to the literature,and then it outlines the process of the author’s implementation of peer observation in classroom in terms of pre-,during-and post-observation.Data interpretation provides more insights into the strengths and problems of the author’s classroom teaching and arrangement,and the possible solutions accordingly.     

在澳大利亚观摩TESOL课堂的启示

课堂观摩历来是教师相互学习,开展行为研究的有效途径。通过介绍澳大利亚塔斯马利亚大学国际语言中心的课堂观摩活动,以及该中心评价外语课的主要标准,提出了如何避免课堂观摩流于形式,在学校有效地开展这项活动的建议。     

The role of video in teacher professional development

This literature review focuses on the e-use of video in teacher initial and continuing professional development. There is evidence that video technology used synchronously, and particularly asynchronously, can extend the quantity and quality of classroom observation experience, which in turn supports the development of observation, analysis and reflection in viewers. Theorising on these gains, the authors describe how the linking of theory to practice, the development of pedagogical language and collaborative learning through communities of practice might all be related to video-enhanced teacher education. Claims for gains in codified subject knowledge are less convincing.     

Video viewing in teacher education and professional development: A literature review

This article reviews the international literature on video viewing in teacher education and professional development. Two hundred and fifty-five articles were collected, summarized and categorized using a conceptualization that includes four aspects: teachers' activity as they view a classroom video, the objectives of video viewing, the types of videos viewed, and the effects of video viewing on teacher education and professional development. The findings in each of these aspects suggested three main questions that may profitably guide future research: How can teaching teachers to identify and interpret relevant classroom events on video clips improve their capacity to perform the same activities in the classroom? How can we best articulate the diverse objectives of video viewing and the diverse types of videos in teacher education and professional development programs? How can we create a “continuum” between teacher education programs and professional development programs in such a way that video viewing becomes a routine, familiar professional practice able to produce the desired effects over the course of an entire teaching career?     

Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video conferencing

Teachers in rural and remote schools face many challenges including those relating to distance, isolation and lack of professional development opportunities. This article examines a project where mathematics and science teachers were provided with professional development opportunities via video conferencing to help them use syllabus documents to develop their teaching programs. The study is qualitative and draws on teacher conversations and surveys using a community of inquiry theoretical framework to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that teacher professional development via video conferencing has both strengths and weaknesses but can support teachers through collaboration to develop their expertise in writing teaching programs.     

构建智能化多媒体教室管理系统

为了使多媒体教室的管理实现智能化和可视化,进一步提高管理水平和多媒体教室的使用效率,提出了智能化多媒体教室管理系统的设计思路.结果表明：采用C/S技术模型的管理平台,可实现对多媒体教室的远程管理、批量控制设备、自动监测设备状态、可视化远程帮助等功能,同时实现了网络巡查听课、网络视频直播等功能;而基于B/S架构的资源服务平台则可实现网络教学的开展.     

Video as a tool for focusing teacher self-reflection: supporting and provoking teacher learning

This article describes the research landscape related to the use of video for promoting teacher learning, drawing on a variety of research studies to illustrate the breadth of approaches that have been employed. One particular research study is reported in some detail since, it is argued, this represents a new level of devolution of agency to teachers to play a self-scaffolding role in their own professional education. The study involved the investigation of an approach to the provision of feedback to teachers about their practice that involved stimulating teacher self-reflection and juxtaposed structure and agency. An observation framework grounded in classroom practice research was developed, and teachers selected elements of that framework to serve as the focus for examining their practice and seeking feedback about that practice. Teachers and researchers examined video-recorded lessons focusing on the teachers’ selected observation elements, and then engaged in feedback conversations about their observations and analyses, and the implications of these for future practice. The approach identified the video record as an artefact of the teacher’s own practice and one which demanded a professional response from the teacher. The balance between structure and agency realised in the study, in combination with the use of video for observation and analysis of practice, facilitated teacher self-reflection and functioned to both support and provoke teacher learning.     

英语师范生教师教育课程改革:"3DR"课程方案

文章从课程目标、课程内容、教学模式及其评价方式等角度介绍海南师范学院外语系自2000年以来开始实施的“3DR”英语师范生教师教育课程改革方案,重点讨论该方案中“描述课堂观察”、“设计课堂任务”、“演示教学思想”、“反思教学实践”等专业实践活动及训练策略对促进师范生综合专业素质的发展和使之适应英语教师持续发展的重要意义。     

Resistance to classroom observation in the context of teacher evaluation: teachers’ and department heads’ experiences and perspectives

This paper reports the main findings of a study that sought to understand how teachers and department heads perceived and experienced the implementation of a classroom observation system in a teacher evaluation context. The data was collected through a teacher and department head survey and interviews with department heads who were responsible for classroom observation. The findings show that respondents regarded classroom observation as an inadequate teacher evaluation instrument. It was also viewed as one of the features of the teacher evaluation system that least contributed to the teachers’ professional development. Department heads felt torn between their intermediate management role as teacher observers and their professional role as teacher peers. Cultural norms of individual professional autonomy that regulated relations among colleagues prevented department heads from using information, gathered through classroom observation, to nourish in-depth professional discussions about concrete educational practices.     

Seeing through the eyes of the teacher? Investigating primary school teachers’ professional noticing through a video-based research methodology

ABSTRACT

Digital video technology has been increasingly employed to investigate teacher professional noticing. While extensive research has been undertaken to explore the specialised knowledge base underlying teacher professional noticing, there is a need to more closely examine the methodological consequences of video-based approaches for understanding the nature of professional noticing. This paper draws upon a recent study that investigated primary school teachers’ professional noticing of mathematics and science classrooms to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities that emerge with a video-based research approach. In this study, the latest video technology was employed to allow primary school teachers to take active roles in capturing, selecting and reflecting on significant classroom events on their own and with colleagues. Drawing upon examples from this study, this paper highlights the methodological potential and challenges of video-based approaches to investigating teacher noticing in classrooms, and discusses how this noticing relates to reflection stimulated by classroom videos. It further reveals the tension between the dual priorities of empowering the teacher participants in research and enabling valid interpretations by the researchers in an attempt to gain insight into the complexity of teachers’ professional noticing.     

Effects of Videocase Construction on Preservice Teachers' Observations of Teaching

Preservice teachers were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 observation conditions: technology-supported practice in observation (TSPO) plus standard classroom placement observation, n = 31, and classroom placement observation (control), n = 31. Over a 10-week term, TSPO students augmented their classroom placement observations of their mentor teachers by engaging in technology-supported construction and video analysis of those mentors' teaching, while control students engaged in only the classroom placement observations. The authors used an online, computer-supported instrument that elicited written responses during observation of 3 different teaching videos to assess the participants' ability to identify, interpret, and analyze evidence of exemplary teaching. TSPO students significantly outperformed controls on all 3 video tests. Implications of these findings for teacher training in both traditional and online education programs are discussed.     

Video as a tool for fostering productive discussions in mathematics professional development

This article explores the use of classroom video as a tool for fostering productive discussions about teaching and learning. The setting for our research is a 2-year mathematics professional development program, based on the Problem-Solving Cycle model. This model relies on video from the teachers’ own classrooms and emphasizes creating a community in which members feel comfortable learning from video. We describe our experiences carrying out the Problem-Solving Cycle model, focusing on our use of video, our efforts to promote a supportive and analytical environment, and the ways in which teachers’ conversations around video developed over a 2-year period.     

Effekte videobasierter Trainings zur Förderung der Selbstwirksamkeitsüberzeugungen über Klassenführung im Grundschulunterricht

Self-efficacy in classroom management and knowledge on classroom management are important teacher resources regarding their health. Fostering student teachers in their self-efficacy in classroom management and situated knowledge on classroom management is a promising approach for reducing reality shock at the beginning of in-service teaching. Thus, the present quasi-experimental pre-post control group study investigates whether video-based and practice-oriented coursework in teacher education can promote self-efficacy in classroom management and the professional vision of classroom management. Analyzing own classroom videos as well as analyzing videos from other teachers lead to a significantly higher latent increase in self-efficacy and professional vision than that of a control group. This was only the case for professional vision in a course with own teaching elements but without video analysis.     

教育见习课程对职前英语教师专业发展影响探究

本文采用定性研究的方法分析了英语专业师范生通过见习在教育教学认知与职业态度上的变化,从社会文化视角探讨了影响师范生变化的主要因素:校园环境以及与见习指导教师的互动。目的在于探究教育见习课程对职前英语教师专业发展的影响,为教育见习和职前教师培养摸索经验。     

Developing a professional vision of classroom practices of a mathematics teacher: views from a researcher and a teacher

The term professional vision points to the many nuanced ways professionals see. This paper traces the development of a professional vision of a researcher and a teacher looking at classroom practices. The researcher’s interest was to capture and study notable aspects of the teacher’s practice. Through a coding scheme, disparate classroom events were organized and analyzed to yield a researcher’s professional vision of the teacher’s practices. For the teacher, through reviewing the video records of his own classroom practices, his professional vision provided a basis for him to reflect and develop professionally. Leveraging on the work of the researcher, he initiated and transformed his own practices. Their collaboration yielded a mutually informed development of professional vision of classroom practices. In juxtaposing the two developments, the researcher and the teacher’s views can be contrasted, their distinctive interests highlighted and common grounds explored. Some implications for developing professional vision are drawn, and it is in the common grounds of the teacher’s professional development and seeing with a goal of enhancing of student learning that hold some promise of a mutual interest in developing a professional vision of classroom practices.     

论教师专业发展之同行互助听课

同伴互助听课是建立在听课基础上的又不等同于传统听课的活动,它是以教师专业发展为目的的听课。对教师专业发展具有重要的促进作用。在教师专业发展视野下的同伴互助听课的实施应从听课的计划与准备、课堂听课、信息反馈及重构教学理念四个基本环节出发,实现教师之间的合作与经验的共享,加强反思来创新教育理念,精练教学技能,促进专业成长,提高教学水平。     

Video Portfolio Assessment: Creating a Framework for Viewing the Functions of Teaching

The goal in this work was to study how a professional assessment of teaching can be developed that will have a positive impact on the professional development of teachers who participate, either as candidates or evaluators. Our hypothesis was that such a positive Impact depends upon two factors: on teachers developing a socially shared language of practice for describing important functions of classroom teaching, and on their using this language in discussing videos of teaching covering a wide range of classroom situations. Our focus was on constructing an interpretive framework (and criteria) that could serve as this language of practice We present psychometric and semantic analyses showing that teachers are consistent in observing these functions of teaching and in using their observations to evaluate teaching in a variety of classroom contexts. We also present qualitative evidence showing how participating in collaborative video analysis or in scoring video portfolios benefits teachers in improving their professional practice.     

Pre-service teachers’ questions about the profession during mentoring group conversations

The use of mentoring group conversations as a tool to support pre-service teachers’ professional development has become more common. However, there is still a lack of research that shows how conversations are used to develop knowledge. The present paper is based on ethnographical observations of mentoring group conversations, and describes how pre-service teachers who participate in an obligatory mentoring model use their conversations as an arena in their search for professional knowledge. Three areas were focused upon during the conversations: the teachers’ role and teaching practice, conditions for professional development and conditions related to the profession. The pre-service teachers mainly used conversations to question, discuss, share and reflect over pedagogical and didactical dilemmas related to teaching activities in the classroom and to their own as well as other teachers’ behaviour and attitudes in different situations. The paper provides an insight into how a mentoring model can contribute to professional preparation.     

An Ongoing Professional Development Program and Its Impact on Teacher Effectiveness

Professional development (PD) has been identified as a critical mechanism that helps teachers increase students' achievement. However, the content and form of this mechanism varies widely. This study examines an ongoing PD for school teachers, which has been explicitly founded on a set of guiding principles associated with quality professional development. The effects of participation in this program on three domains of teacher effectiveness, measured through classroom observations, are tested in a sample of 153 teachers. The domains of teacher effectiveness are planning and preparation, classroom environment, and instruction. Regression results indicate that participation in this program is significantly related to teachers' scores on instruction only. The implications of this finding indicate that high-quality professional development does not always address all domains of teaching. Other implications derived from the findings point to the need for professional development opportunities to be ongoing and highly focused on improving inquiry-based instruction.     

Using video to support in-service teacher professional development: the state of the field,limitations and possibilities

Video is increasingly used to support in-service teacher professional development (TPD). Advances in affordability and usability of technology mean that interest is set to develop further. Studies in this area are diverse in terms of scale, methodology and context. This places limitations on undertaking a systematic review; therefore the authors use a scoping review approach. Their analysis involves 82 studies from which they thematise subtopics and assess research characteristics. This provides a much-needed analysis to inform researchers and practitioners. Additionally, the authors identify robust studies that consider the effect of video on teacher cognition and classroom practice. A consistent finding is that video is effective when used as part of TPD. Since studies largely use thematic qualitative analysis, however, this consensus needs further examination. Further qualitative and quantitative research is needed to identify how the use of video impacts on classroom practices.